Is "A Clockwork Orange" the new "V for Vendetta"?

American photojournalist "El Marco" is currently visiting Spain and a couple days ago witnessed Europe's latest political outburst, as Spain's three largest unions tried to shut down all commerce for a day in a "general strike" to protest the government's new right-to-work laws designed to alleviate the country's rampant unemployment:

While the general strike pretty much fizzled (as the linked photo-essay reveals), and it's difficult to get American readers worked up over confusing Spanish politics, an intriguing detail from El Marco's essay stands out:

Here and there throughout the crowd, in addition to the now de rigueur "V for Vendetta" Guy Fawkes masks, protesters were wearing "A Clockwork Orange" t-shirts and regalia (the orange shirt on the right side of this photo). It seems the nihilistic smash-everything "ultra-violence" depicted in Stanley Kubrick's 1971 film version has a new generation of fans seeking some hipster cultural justification for their mindless contrarianism.

One final note: "A Clockwork Orange" has many literary themes beyond the scope of this short post, but one of those themes was a condemnation of totalitarianism, as the novel's fictional government tries to brainwash the unhinged lead character with mind-control techniques. Apparently the unconscious irony of this idiot waving a totalitarian flag while wearing an "A Clockwork Orange" shirt was lost on everyone but the insightful El Marco — and you the reader.

Check out the full photo essay for a full examination of Madrid's union protests (which went completely unnoticed in American media) and El Marco's lucid explanation of dizzying Spanish politics.